6 - 25 March 2014
about the exhibition
Lucienne Rickard is an extraordinarily talented artist from Hobart whose work is marked by a sharp eye for detail, zealous imagination and a fastidious, almost obsessive, mode of execution. Having focused previously on the plumage of Tasmanian birds, native flora and the richly decorated traditional uniforms of the Prussian military, Lucienne’s recent works are inspired by the prose of American author Cormac McCarthy as well as portraying the sometimes brutal and complex man/animal and animal/animal relationships. Although often confronting, the works are hauntingly beautiful in both execution and composition. Using controlled and repetitive pencil strokes on often large sheets of drafting paper, Lucienne captures the velvety textures of bird and beast and the theatrical richness of the clothing of the human protagonists. Highlights appear in the images where she repeatedly works and rubs back sections of the drawing with her fingers and where subtle changes in mark direction create differences of tone. The painstaking and intensely physical nature of this process emphasises the ideas of physicality and transience in her use of imagery. In all of her works, Lucienne presents the viewer with richly detailed, textured and challenging works that unite themes ofbeauty, death, brutality and obsession.
Lucienne Rickard completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Queensland College of Art in 2001 and, in the following year, Honours (First Class) in Fine Arts at the University of Tasmania. Having completed her PhD in Fine Arts at the University of Tasmania and been awarded the Rosamond McCulloch Studio Residency in Paris, she has had work in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Australia. Lucienne has exhibited with Beaver Galleries since 2010, culminating most recently with a sellout showing by the gallery of her drawings at the inaugural Sydney Contemporary Art Fair last year.
